Joshua Nieman: In 1867, a man by the name of Daniel Lace Quirk founded, with his business partners, a paper company on the northern side of Ypsilanti off of the Huron River. Now, this was a time dominated by steam power and early forms of modern communication, like the telegraph, for example. It was also amidst the explosion of locomotives and railways, only being two years before the revolutionary completion of the transcontinental railroad. For these early factories, rivers were crucial for activating heavy manufacturing machinery through complex systems of water mills and cogwheels. The dam established for the Peninsular Paper Company allowed Quirk Sr. and his business to accomplish exactly that. Unbeknownst to Quirk Sr. and his business associates though, was the fact that they had just launched a staple of Ypsilanti that would go on to be debated over for decades after the company ceased operations. Welcome to WEMU's Hidden in Plain Sight, the show where we shed light on some of the people, places, and things that help comprise who we are as a community. Today we will be exploring what is now the abandoned Peninsular Paper Dam/Detroit Edison power plant and analyzing exactly what series of events led to its current state. I've lived in Ypsilanti for, well, it's coming up on five years now. For two of those years, I lived in the apartment complex known as Peninsular Place. The entirety of that time, I was aware that just across the river stood the ruins of a building marked with a humongous sign that read, Peninsular Paper Company, Ypsilanti, since 1867. I didn't quite understand the relationship between where I was living and this seemingly forsaken site in the distance, but upon learning that the dam is scheduled for removal later this year, it became the obvious candidate for our next episode. So, I went to work. I didn't know where to start, so I called Peninsular Place, who told me that the dam and the structure was owned by the local government. So, I contacted the Ypsilanti Building Department, and that led me to Ypsilanti’s preservation planner, Carrie Malas, and its community economic development and equity manager, Katie Jones. I was able to have a conversation with both of them on location. Here's Carrie to start us off.
Carrie Malas: So, this is the powerhouse of, it's the remnant, the last standing remnant of the paper, Peninsular Paper Mill/Dam complex. And formerly there were, there was a paper mill on site. There was also one that was originally from the same company. It was across the river. This is the powerhouse that was erected in the early 1900s. That provided hydroelectricity right when the company started creating, you know, shifting their production from creating rag paper to wood pulp paper.
Joshua Nieman: Pause. Rag paper? We all know that paper comes from wood, but if you're anything like me, this concept is entirely new. Luckily, we have local historian and Highland Cemetery Association Board Vice President, Barry LaRue, to help us out.
Barry LaRue: In those days, paper had a large rag content and anyone who's interested in archival preservation are always amazed at the condition of newspapers from before the Civil War, which have actually been able to be preserved quite well. And they're still bright and the paper is not deteriorated and if you compare that to the kind of newspapers that were out in the latter 19th century and even through World War I, when they age, they become brittle and they basically begin to fall apart into dust because they were not using rag content. So, while it was a more expensive paper, which is why the newspaper industry eventually went to just a pulp, as opposed to rag-based paper, what was produced at the... at the Peninsular Paper Company was a paper with a large rag content and apparently there were local rag pickers who then would line up at the factory with their rags that they had collected throughout the village and the area and sell them to the paper company to use in the process and that certainly went on for many years into the early 20th century.
Joshua Nieman: What constitutes as a rag?
Barry LaRue: Well, old, literally old cloth, clothing, towels, underwear, I mean any, basically pretty much any textiles.
Joshua Nieman: And a more expensive paper it was. In 1944, for the second edition of the records of meetings of the Washtenaw Historical Society, the Peninsular Paper president at the time, Daniel L. Quirk Jr. wrote a piece called The History of Papermaking in Washtenaw County. It's not exactly a page turner, but here's a little bit of what Quirk Jr. had to say. Direct quotes, by the way. “The construction of the mill was begun in the spring of 1867 for one paper machine, and the first paper was made in 1868. An important factor in the decision to build the mill at this time was the fortunate circumstance of obtaining a contract from the Chicago Tribune to take the output of the mill in newsprint. The new lines of Peninsular covers and other specialties were introduced and placed on the market about 1900. It was necessary to make many changes in both equipment and manner of operating the mill to suit the new conditions and to further increase the production. The sales plans and policies had also to be changed. The company has been operating ever since on more or less specialty essential to the government directly and indirectly and to war defense plants in order to obtain raw material and supplies which are allocated by the government. The Peninsular Paper Company is a very small mill as mills go today. But being small, it has specialized in papers that can be made to order in small lots, and are not as competitive, and for which the customer is willing to pay an extra price. Its specialty lines are so well known by all paper merchants and printers from coast to coast." So, you see, this was a company who found its success through specialty paper. A lot of people don't know that.
Barry LaRue: When I was a kid, my father, well he was in the Rotary Club for decades in Ypsi, and sometimes he'd bring home samples of the Peninsular paper, which was a very interesting and expensive kind of paper that actually you could see the flecks of fibers in it, yeah, and in a variety of very interesting colors. So, they were making this stuff so that you could use them for corporate annual reports or special invitations or restaurant menus or various things like that. So even though it wasn't a very big plant, they were trying to find this niche market that would still be healthy even though it was a relatively small plant.
Joshua Nieman: And so that brings us back to the layout of the original complex itself. We've established that the ruined building that's standing there today is the old Detroit Edison power plant connected to Peninsular. But in Peninsular’s contract with the Chicago Tribune, the Tribune required Peninsular to build factories on either side of the river to reduce product loss in the case of a fire. And wouldn't you know it, in 1898, there was one.
Barry LaRue: The Tribune contract required them to build two plants, one on the south side of the river and one on north side of river. So, when that burned, they took the equipment that they could out of the shell of it, added it to the plant on the south side and began to make additions to the plants that eventually was the footprint of what was here until the apartment building was built.
Joshua Nieman: When the southside plant and surrounding structures were demolished for the construction of Peninsular Place, the community was worried about the loss of history. To expand on that more is past Ypsilanti Mayor and President of the Ypsilanti Heritage Foundation, Paul Schreiber.
Paul Schreiber: The manufacturing facility was turned into Peninsular Place apartments, which are there today. There was some discussion about, you know, losing the history of the manufacturing plant. So as a compromise, the chimney that's in the middle of Peninsular Place is still there, which is the original chimney from the manufacturing facility.
Joshua Nieman: Wow, that's really cool!
Paul Schreiber: Yeah.
Joshua Nieman: I used to live there, actually.
Paul Schreiber: Ha! Did you? Did you always wonder why that old chimney was there?
Joshua Nieman: So – we know that the south side of the Peninsular complex became Peninsular Place. And we know that plant on the north side burned down entirely. So that leaves the Detroit Edison plant, the building with the sign on top. And of course, the dam itself, which has been causing the most amount of trouble recently. You see, what good is a dam when it literally isn't powering anything anymore? Would you happen to know when the city started seriously debating whether to remove the dam?
Paul Schreiber: Yeah, yeah. So, it was happening. I think that started actually around in the early 2000s. I know it certainly was going on when I became mayor in 2004. And it went all the way until 2019. Because some people wanted to restore the plant and have it create hydroelectric power. And finally, after, I don't know, there's at least one study, if not more, basically said that it would not be a good return on investment and so in 2019 the city council voted to remove the dam.
Joshua Nieman: Removing the dam sounds nice but is made a bit more challenging by the fact that the city has decided to keep the remains of the power plant intact.
Carrie Malas: So, the city's plan is, so okay, the dam is really the main priority in this phase of the project. We are making sure that the dam can be safely taken out, and part of that includes making sure that the, we'll call it the bank, that abuts the powerhouse is stable. So, there's a stabilization line item to make sure that the building will not fall over so like it's not being rehabilitated at this at this moment it's we're making sure it's stabilized. We have not started any phase of looking at – other than –
Katie Jones: Well, but we did make a determination at this point right at 60% designs we had to make a decision whether it was staying or whether it's going sort of and so we got both of those estimates and the city decided that given its historical significance that it had that designation that we decided to keep it in place and so we made that decision so that we could continue on to 90% designs that we would keep the powerhouse.
Joshua Nieman: This was a bit of a controversial decision. Would you guys be willing to kind of, kind of say your personal opinions on that decision?
Carrie Malas: This is really funny because we have very opposite personal opinions on this. I think that's healthy, like I think, that is exactly like why it's important to have people you know looking at different sides of the problem from different perspectives. I'm the preservationist, I'm not really a purist in that I think every building needs to be saved, I think it has to make economic sense. It's really difficult to make the argument before you have any funding and like any – that all it you have to line it up. It has to make economic sense. We can't as a city just go into debt to save a building. It has – so I mean –
Katie Jones: So, she's sharing a little bit of my opinion as well, I mean we agreed on a lot of things.
Carrie Malas: Yeah, I mean, I would like to spend the time to look for funding and like do whatever we can to find partners on, you know, rehabilitating this thing or attendance or something along the lines. But that is all so complicated. But whenever you do, this is my little soapbox moment, whenever you tear down a historic structure, you cannot rebuild that. So, it really is a monumental decision of are we willing to lose something that is like, this is part of our identity, this building significance is partially tied to, well it is tied to its local history related to industry on the Huron River and we really don't have anything else that speaks to it in the same way. So, this is really kind of the last standing remnant of that history for Ypsilanti that we have. Um, so... that's my little soapbox moment. I think like it makes sense to try to look at all avenues to preserve it. And sometimes it is just, you know, I'll let Katie pick up from there.
Katie Jones: Well, and I'll start also with the areas that we, you know, that we both agreed on, which was I think that like, yeah, it has to make economic sense. And I think the thing that really is an economic development perspective, as well as the overarching project of like the goal is to remove the dam, right? So, I think I got a little frustrated that now removing the dam equaled having to make this decision that I feel like also is a potential challenge in the future, right? With trying to figure out –
Joshua Nieman: It’s inconvenient.
Katie Jones: Yes, it is inconvenient. I was like, why do we have to make this decision right now? Can we just get rid of the dam? And everybody was like no, we have decide now. Right, and so my concern is that like, what are we gonna use it for? How is it gonna be utilized in the feature? What are we doing? Like, it's a run down building, right. And Carrie and I just see it very differently. Like literally, like when we look over at it, I see a dilapidated building and she sees a historic structure, right, and so like those are just two different ways of looking at it. And I think that I just want to ensure that the city has the best financial future and my concern was that it might not with this building still here because now we still have to figure out what we're going to do with it.
Joshua Nieman: And there are many, many ideas about what the structure could become.
Paul Schreiber: Well, it's just a building that has interesting brickwork, art deco brickwork and that's not done anymore. So, it would just be a time in history architecturally that we would lose. We don't have a lot of art deco buildings in the city. So, you know, I think it's incumbent upon us to preserve the one we have. You know, when you go looking at houses. You know, some people see shag carpeting and say, I could never live here. And other people say, well, there's wood floor under there. We just have to take the shag carpeting out. Well, so when you look at the Edison power plant, it doesn't have a roof, you know, it's rusting out, it's got some graffiti, but if you look the brick work, you know it's all there and it's stable and it's really beautiful. It could be cleaned up and look really nice. So, you know what, it would take some, love and care but you know it's a gem that just needs to be polished. You know there was a question as to whether the power plant was deemed you know of historical value and the Ypsilanti Heritage Foundation was very strong, very opinionated about that it was because it's an interesting art deco building and you know it's in a very interesting location you know. It could be used, like I said, for a restaurant.
Katie Jones: Interestingly enough, a few years ago, there was a big, I actually was talking with somebody who used to work at Huron River Watershed and they were saying that there are actual designs, and I don't remember if it was designs that the city came out with, I think, but like designs for it to become a brewery. And so there was plans, probably in the last 20 years, for it to become a brewery. And I think that's a lovely idea, right? I do economic development. I think if we can figure out how to own that or sublease that to somebody so they a run a successful business. That would be amazing, right? Like, kayakers, they can stop for a beer, food, lunch, right, in the middle of their kayak trip, that'd be fantastic. The one other thing I was going to add that I didn't add before was that the sign had already, we've heard a lot of community feedback that the sign is iconic, right. The sign really means Ypsilanti, and so it was super important that the sign remain and so then, like, if you take the building away, what do you do with the sign? And again, my attitude was like, you put it in the ground, like anywhere, right? Like literally a sign can go anywhere. However, at the top of the building, where you can see it from the skyline is lovely and it adds to the character of Ypsilanti. And so that was one thing that we were all in agreement on is that the sign stays. And so, you know, but what do you do at the sign when you don't have a building? So that was a big piece of it as well.
Joshua Nieman: The sign, undoubtedly, is the one thing almost all of Ypsilanti knows about this place. Here’s Barry.
Barry LaRue. Well, the one thing is that the power plant on the north side of the river that was physically interconnected to the dam because of the turbines had a, and still has this big neon sign on it, but it lit up in those days, bright red, and it said, Peninsular Paper company founded 1867 and it was bright and so if you were driving down Huron River Drive by the tower dorms at EMU for instance you would sort of look down the hill just a little bit and off to the left was this bright, bright sign that was really quite interesting. I mean it was a I don't know that it was scary, but it was it was something that you couldn't ignore. It was so bright!
Joshua Nieman: But sign aside, the Peninsular Paper Dam has a history of causing issues. Issues that the city is concerned about starting up again. Here's Barry.
Barry LaRue: There have been a lot of floods in Ypsilanti. I mean, fortunately not lately. But I mean partly that's just due to the fact that a lot these areas where buildings took place were in floodplains. And there was not much either awareness or much care about it.
Joshua Nieman: Here's Katie.
Katie Jones: So interestingly enough, one of the things that I think is the biggest concern with dam is dam failure, right? That's why there's state and federal funding right now towards removals of dams is because... places are having higher rains and more intense rains than we've had, right? Like every year you're hearing about hundred-year storms, right. And so, ensuring that we don't have flooding and we don't have concerns like that. And I think that that's an ongoing concern for the city of Ypsilanti is to make sure that we do get this dam out so that we don't that additional flooding, right, like that's a big concern for us and a hazard that we want to have happen. And so, um, it's a continual thing. And so, like looking back to that did happen, right in the early 1900s is, again, concerning, because we want to make sure that we... are doing our due diligence and getting the thing out so that we're restoring the river channel to its natural habitat and it can flourish and so can we, so can the community and our built infrastructure doesn't have additional damage and we don't have problems with it.
Joshua Nieman: One particular flood in 1918 was so extreme that the Huron River rose 12 feet in about 10 minutes. That completely washed out the Peninsular Dam. And unfortunately, especially back then, these floods often rub shoulders with larger societal issues.
Barry LaRue: To be honest, there was a lot of, I guess what you would today call, environmental racism in that the cheapest property was, unfortunately, occasionally likely to flood.
Joshua Nieman: For those unaware, I asked Barry to define what environmental racism means.
Barry LaRue: It's a situation where the wealthier people, who traditionally were white people, would buy and build on the nicest property in a particular locality, a city or a town, and the leftovers were where there were factories that were spewing out fumes, smoke from coal fires and that sort of thing. And of course then there was just the leftovers, the tailings of certain kinds of products like steel mills going into the soil. So, you've got a whole witch's brew of air pollution and soil contamination, and flooding that could take place, and I think in a nutshell, I'd define that as environmental racism.
Joshua Nieman: Another way of looking at environmental racism is cases where communities and areas heavily populated by ethnic minorities are disproportionately subjugated to pollution and other environmental hazards, often caused by a variety of discriminatory policies, redlining, developmental patterns, or abuses of political power. It's terrible. And honestly, not the first brush with racism the Peninsular Paper Company has had. Daniel Quirk Jr. is a name known by generations of EMU alumni because the building for the theater arts department was originally named after him. It has since been renamed the Judy Sturgis Hill Building upon the discovery of some of Quirk Jr.’s past behaviors. Here's Barry. He was the fellow that
Barry LaRue: He was the fellow that started the Ypsilanti Players, which was the third oldest community theater group in the United States, for instance, very interested in the circus. He used to actually leave working at the Peninsular Paper Company and go off and work as a what they called a roustabout, basically a circus stagehand helping to set up tents and tend the elephants and that sorta thing. The guy was really into the circus, right? And he'd just say, I'm leaving for two weeks, and he'd wander off following some circus and working for them. Daniel Quirk Jr. was involved with something that, like the equivalent of the Chamber of Commerce or the Downtown Development Authority was having some things downtown where they were raising money for charity or something. And... in the alleys, they would set up little things where people would be dressed as an American Indian or an Italian street vendor or a black person. There's a picture of Daniel Quirk Jr. in blackface selling pottery or something.
Joshua Nieman: I see.
Barry LaRue: I think that and the fact that I think he may have directed a minstrel show at the Masonic Temple or something. So, there were those two things.
Joshua Nieman: Some remember Quirk Jr. as a good man tangled up in the normalization of blackface in the late 1800s. Others view his actions as inseparable from the man he was outside of his passion for performance. People of both sides agree, however, that his actions can't be excused and that the discovery only adds to what otherwise is an overwhelmingly bizarre legacy for a paper company. So, where are we now? An abandoned power plant that is remaining, a decommissioned dam that is being removed, and the people behind these decisions currently locked in the logistics of it all. Rest assured though, the sign isn't going anywhere. I'm Joshua Nieman and this has been WEMU's Hidden in Plain Sight. Who knows where we will shed light next? Thanks for listening.
Carrie Malas: Oh, I told him that we have some – there will be at some point community engagement regarding dam removals…
Katie Jones: We don't have the dates yet right at the moment, we need a few more answers so we have more answers than questions when we do reach out to the community and so to have them provide input and that sort of thing on the 60% design so we're anticipating some time hopefully still before the end of the year that we would start to engage the community and invite them out to come and provide some input.
Barry LaRue: There is an interesting story that I always like to tell regarding the paper company when I was young. Let's say that I was 10 years old. I used to go down to the American Legion Hall, which was on South Huron Street at the time. And I used play down there with other kids of members of the Legion. And while our dads were having a long neck Stroh's beer at the bar, the kids were playing in the building. And there was a picture window that overlooked the Huron River. And one day I looked down at the river and I saw that it was bright green and then maybe a half hour later it was bright red and then maybe a half hour or an hour later you know it was blue and I went up to my dad and I said dad the river is changing colors and they said oh they're just dumping the dye vats out at the paper company and I thought at the time of course what did I know about in the environment, but... if you can imagine that lots and lots of dye was dumped directly into the Huron River, that it scares me now to think of it. But it was just a thing and my father just said, oh that's just the paper mill. You know he didn't think of anything of it.
Joshua Nieman: Okay, good. That was very eloquently put.
Barry LaRue: How's that?!
Music in this episode provided by Adam Plomaritas.
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